ACCOUNT OF JAVA AND BATAVIA.

I96

are alone allowed to the members of the government, who have alfo the privilege ofpainting or gilding their carriages agreeable to their own tafte.

It is ordained that a flave fhall run before every wheel-carriage, with a ftick in hishand, in order to give notice of its nearnefs, and prevent all accidents; for the ftreetsnot being paved, the approach of the carriage cannot be otherwife eafily perceived.

A yearly tax is paid to the Company for keeping a carriage ; but mod people hireone, at the rate of fixty rix-dollars a month, of the licenfed ftable-keepers, by whomthe duty is paid *. Counfellors of India , and a few others of the Company’s upperfervants are exempted from it.

Sedan chairs are not in ufe here. The ladies, however, fometimes employ a con-veyance that is fomewhat like them, and is called a norimon. This is a kind of box,,narrower at the top than the bottom, and carried by a thick bamboo pole fattenedover the top. They fit in it, with their legs crofted under them, and have then juftroom enough to fit upright without being feen.

The carts drawn by buffaloes, which ferve to convey goods inland, are of a veryfimple and no lefs clumfy conftruction. A long pole which ferves for a beam, goesthrough an hxle-tree, which turns two wheels, or rather round blocks like quoits,which are fawn out of the trunk of a thick tree, being about four feet in diameter, andhaving a round hole in the center through which the end of the axle-tree is inferted.At the farther end of the beam there is a crofs piece of wood, of four or five feet inlength, with four ftout pegs, which is laid upon the Ihoulders of two buffaloes, in themanner of a yoke, fo that their necks fit between the pegs, and this ferves both tobear the weight of the cart and to drag it along. The carts themfelves are fmall, andcannot carry a great weight; they have a covering made of leaves to preferve the loadfrom the rain.

The trade of the Company, as we have before faid, is managed by the director-general. The burthenfome duty of his office, is greatly alleviated by two affiftants,who are fenior merchants of the cattle. Their bufinefs confifts chiefly in iuperintend-ing the houfing in the Company’s warehoufes of all goods which are brought to Ba-tavia by their fhips, and the delivery of them again ; all returns on this fcore are firftmade to them. The fenior of them has the fuperintendance over all the goods thatarrive, and the other over thofe that are difpatched. Deliveries are made on warrantsfigned by one of them. All papers relative to trade, which are received from the out-fa&ories, are examined by them, and they report their contents to the director. Theyare both likewife adminiftrators of the great treafury, but derive little emolument fromit. Their office is one of the moft troublefome of any in the Company’s civil ferviceat Batavia, and is not equally lucrative in comparifon with others, to which lefs labouris attached, and whence much greater profits accrue ; yet it is an office of much con-fideration, as it gives the precedency before all other fenior merchants.

All merchandize is houfed in the Company’s repofitories, which are fituated partlyin the city of Batavia, and partly on the ifland of Onruft, under the dire&ion of adminif-trators, or warehoufe-keepers, who mutt render account of the fame.

This branch of bufinefs is divided into feveral departments, each of which has twoadminiftrators, two'commiffaries, and a book keeper. Some of thefe adminiftratorffiipsare very lucrative employments, efpecially that of the ifland Onruft, on account of thelarge quantities of goods which are laid up there. A certain per centage is allowed to

* The annual tax paid by the liable keepers, is eighty rix-dollars if living within, and fifty if without, thecity. On a former occafion, the different rates of the duty on carriages paid by different perfons havebeen noticed. Tr.

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